Comments on: Independent 8111 / Phi

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:09:28 +0000

Thanks Phi for dropping in. The "beepiarist" is indeed from Garden Rubbish: one of the few gems in a book which I found rather tedious overall.

By: Dormouse

Dormouse — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:49:33 +0000

Well, I thought I’d done this, but I now see I got 23ac wrong. I was thinking along the lines that as a pianist gives a recital, they could be a “reciter”, but of course the correct noun would be “recitalist”. OK, I couldn’t see how it worked but I couldn’t see 24ac either. (I see Richter kept playing into the nineties, but I don’t recall ever seeing him play.)

Thanks, and thanks for being not the only one having “Tripoli” for 17ac. Came back to the puzzle after several hours and suddenly saw 6dn, which told me I was wrong. I’d been previously telling myself there could be no word starting tb-.

No, I didn’t spot the nina.

By: Phi

Phi — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:12:55 +0000

My notes (from when I typed up the puzzle to submit it) say ‘mo’.

The bee -> apiarist & ape -> beepiarist is rather neat. I don’t recognise it, but I must admit I tired of S&Y after ‘And Now All This’. There was one called ‘Garden Rubbish’, I think, and it may come from that.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:40:06 +0000

Well spotted – we missed that entirely. Perhaps Phi will drop by and indicate which one he intended.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:13:32 +0000

Further to 4/5 and 8: Chambers 2008 and 2011 (but not 1998) have mo. for "month" in a separate entry some way down from MO, which has various expansions.

By: allan_c

allan_c — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:44:39 +0000

Bah! Missed the nina, otherwise I might have got TAUT a lot sooner than I did. And I too had to check the meaning of ‘gore’; I always wondered why Kensington Gore was so called.

Thanks, Phi and B&J.

By: Bertandjoyce

Bertandjoyce — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:06:41 +0000

Pelham Barton @5 – We thought the same thing about 20d. It wasn’t until we came to write up the blog that we realised we couldn’t find MO as an abbreviation for month in any of the dictionaries!

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:17:52 +0000

10a seems uncontroversial to me. NealH is right that “net game” wouldn’t be used to describe a player’s overall performance, but there is nothing in the clue to suggest that it would. My understanding is that it means how a player (or seed) plays (or performs) close to the net – which fits Phi’s clue very well. I think it is a common expression. (I don’t know much about tennis but I certainly knew it.)

By: NealH

NealH — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:32:25 +0000

I was a bit puzzled by 10 across and refused to believe it was the right answer for a long time. I can see that a tennis player might be described as having a good “net game”, meaning they are good at volleying close to the net, but it hardly seems like common usage and I don’t think you would use it to describe a player’s overall performance. Other than that, this was an enjoyable and well-constructed puzzle. Spotting the NINA would have helped me with the couple I was struggling with (derivative and taut), but I didn’t notice it. The definition in 4 down was excellent.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:18:50 +0000

Correction to 4: I meant 20dn, not 22dn.